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Why the US Navy wants to retire eight ships early
By Megan Eckstein
Monday, Mar 13

Dry dock flooding begins June 10, 2021, for the Ticonderoga-class
guided-missile cruiser Vicksburg. (MC3 Brandon Roberson/U.S. Navy)
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy intends to decommission 11 ships in fiscal
2024, including eight ahead of their planned end of service life — fewer
than the 24 it requested to decommission in its FY23 submission, but
still likely to reignite debate on Capitol Hill.

Those set for early retirement as part of a divestment strategy include
three Whidbey Island-class amphibious dock landing ships the Navy tried
to retire last year; three Ticonderoga-class cruisers, one of which the
Navy tried to retire last year; and two Independence-variant littoral
combat ships that would be just eight and nine years old at decommissioning.

The Navy would lose a cumulative 54 years of service life from these
ships under this plan.

The service also plans to decommission two additional cruisers and one
attack submarine that have reached the end of their planned life.

Erik Raven, undersecretary of the Navy, told Defense News in a March 10
media roundtable the service “did a ship-by-ship review to understand
the material state of each of the ships” set for early retirement.

In considering further investment in repair, modernization and
operations for these individual ships, “as judged hull by hull, the
return on investment is not there,” he added. “We have sailors and
Marines who are serving on these ships; we think that getting them
matched up with the right platforms is the way to go.”

Rear Adm. John Gumbleton, the deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for
budget and director of fiscal management, said in a March 13 budget
briefing that “for the cruisers and [amphibs], the decision to request
this divestment was based on material condition, life remaining, cost
and then time to upgrade, and of course the resultant warfighting value.
These six vessels did not pass” that return-on-investment analysis.

Congress last year rejected the Navy’s plan, with lawmakers voting to
save four amphibious ships, five LCSs and a cruiser from early retirement.

Here’s a look at the plan the Navy has put forward this year.

Two littoral combat ships
The Navy is proposing the early retirement of LCSs Jackson and
Montgomery, which were commissioned in 2015 and 2016 respectively. These
ships were meant to serve for 25 years.

This proposal comes, simply, because the Navy bought more ships than it
now says it needs.

The littoral combat ship Montgomery enters dry dock at a BAE Systems
repair facility in 2017. (Electronics Technician First Class Adam
Ross/U.S. Navy)

The Navy determined in a 2021 review its ideal fleet would have 15
Independence-variant ships on the West Coast and 6 Freedom-variant ships
on the East Coast, all capable of operating with the surface warfare
mission package and the Indy-variants also capable of using a mine
countermeasures mission package.

As a first step, the Navy asked in its FY23 budget to decommission all
Freedom-variant LCSs, which have a flawed combining gear and would cost
an undisclosed amount of money to fix with a new combining gear system.
The Navy determined, based on its need for just six ships to conduct
surface warfare in the Atlantic fleet, it would decommission these
existing ships and await delivery of the final six ships in the class,
which would be built with the proper combining gear design.

Congress rejected this idea, instead saving five of the hulls.

This year, though, there’s nothing materially wrong with the two LCSs
set for decommissioning. The Navy needs 15 Independence-variant hulls
and will have 19 by the time the remaining ones deliver from Austal USA.
The two oldest in the fleet are up for decommissioning in 2024, even
though that would leave the Navy with 12 until the next couple deliver
to the fleet.

Naval Surface Forces spokesman Cmdr. Arlo Abrahamson told Defense News
decommissioning Jackson and Montgomery allows the Navy to spend on
higher-priority ships, as well as “reallocate manpower and critical
skillsets to bolster our remaining LCS crews and other fleet assets” to
increase near-term readiness.

“There are no near-term risks associated with these proposed
decommissionings. Adequate inventory of hulls exist to support the
operational demand,” he added.

Gumbleton said during the roundtable the decommissioning plan is not
tied to any particular outcome for the hulls, but that the Navy would
look into selling them to an ally or partner.

Three amphibious ships, again
The Navy will try again this year to convince Congress of the need to
decommission three Whidbey Island-class LSDs: the Germantown, Gunston
Hall and Tortuga.

The Navy requested to decommission these three, plus the Ashland, in its
FY23 plan, but Congress voted to save all four. The service is once
again looking to decommission them early: Germantown would be 38 years
into a 40-year planned life, Gunston Hall would be 35 and Tortuga would
be 34.

A draft FY24 memo, obtained by Defense News as the Navy and Marine Corps
were finalizing their budget plan to send to the Defense Department for
further work, showed the Navy wanted to decommission four other notably
younger LSDs. It appears that, during negotiations in the late summer
and early fall, the Navy abandoned the effort to retire the four younger
ships and decided to restart negotiations with Congress over Germantown,
Gunston Hall and Tortuga.

The dock landing ship Ashland is seen heading to Japan to conduct a hull
swap with the amphibious dock landing ship Tortuga. (MCSN Amber
O'Donovan/U.S. Navy)

Raven said during the press briefing these particular ships “are
challenged in terms of readiness.”

Still, the Marine Corps insists its forces need these ships.

Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. David Berger said last week the
overall readiness of the entire amphibious fleet was just 32%, quite a
bit lower than other parts of the Navy ship fleet. But he added that the
Marine Corps needs the Navy to maintain an inventory of 31 total amphibs
or risk the Marines not being able to respond to a crisis or conflict.

Cruiser Vicksburg, also again
The Navy and Congress have also debated cruisers in recent years. The
FY24 proposal asks to decommission Cowpens, Shiloh and Vicksburg, each
of which would be 32 or 33 years into their 35-year planned life.

Last year, the Navy asked to decommission four cruisers that had reached
the end of their planned service life, and Vicksburg early, but Congress
voted to save Vicksburg.

The Navy struggled to get some of the cruisers through a lengthy,
multi-phase overhaul and life extension, as and the service has tried to
ditch some of these ships rather than continue to pour money into the hulls.

The service has previously argued the ships aren’t a sound investment,
and in fact a Navy budget book notes that accelerating the Cowpens’
decommissioning from the planned 2026 timeline to 2024 would save $130
million amid the ship’s “increased maintenance availability costs and
poor return on investment in terms of operational employment and
capability.”

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday last spring also offered
another argument: the ships aren’t safe. He referred to several emergent
repairs during cruiser deployments, including ones involving water
leaking into the main engine room or berthing areas below the water
line. The ships have also faced ongoing cracks in fuel tanks.

The Office of the Secretary of Defense offered up an additional pitch in
its FY24 budget briefing: the cruisers are less necessary “as the
mission transitions to Flight III” Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, the
first of which is going through trials now ahead of its delivery to the
Navy later this year.

About Megan Eckstein
Megan Eckstein is the naval warfare reporter at Defense News. She has
covered military news since 2009, with a focus on U.S. Navy and Marine
Corps operations, acquisition programs and budgets. She has reported
from four geographic fleets and is happiest when she’s filing stories
from a ship. Megan is a University of Maryland alumna.